The “2” in E=MC2 stands for the two weeks that Mariah Carey was guaranteed at the top with her new album. It earned a second week at No. 1 on the Billboard/Soundscan chart by selling 182,000 copies, down 61% from its opening sales. Carey’s album may come back to enjoy more weeks in the top position, but next week won’t be one of them, since Madonna’s debuting Hard Candy will be a lock for that slot when we next bring you the chart news.
The week’s most surprising debut was the No. 3 entry for Flight of the Conchords, releasing their first full-length disc after finding fame on HBO. It sold a not-so-wacky 52,000. That’s only the second time the Sub Pop label out of Seattle has had a debut in the top 10 (the first was last year, when the Shins bowed at No. 2). It’s the highest ranking comedy album since Steve Martin hit No. 2 in 1978.
Ashlee Simpson may be feeling more bitter than sweet about sales for her third album. Bittersweet debuted at No. 4 with sales of 47,000. In contrast, both of her previous albums entered on top, with her freshman effort selling 398,000 in 2004 and her second one opening with 220,000 the following year. Maybe Ashlee, like sister Jessica, will soon announce that she’s rediscovered her country roots and take up shop in Nashville.
You didn't have to be a rocket scientist to figure that E=MC2, Mariah Carey's latest, would debut atop the Billboard/Soundscan album chart. Her "lambs" turned out in force, snapping up 463,000 copies for the best first-week sales so far in 2008 and Carey's own best weekly tally yet. Her previous disc, 2005's The Emancipation of Mimi, something of a comeback after a series of disappointing efforts, bowed with 404,000 units sold. The previous best this year had been Jack Johnson's Sleep Through the Static, which came out of the gate with 375,000 a couple of months ago.
The next-highest debut this week belonged to Lady Antebellum, a freshman country trio on Capitol Nashville, whose self-titled CD came in at No. 4 with sales of 43,000. This is the second week in a row that a relatively unknown country act has scored a surprisingly solid bow on the album chart, following James Otto's impressive debut, Sunset Man, which drops to No. 12, moving 84,000 units in just two weeks. In fact, nine of the top 50 albums are by country acts, thanks partly to the effect of April 14's CMT Awards.
When it rains hip-hop albums, it pours -- sometimes. And after a relative drought, three of this week's six top-selling albums were from returning rappers. Rick Ross' second album of all-new material, Trilla, sold 199,000, topping the 187,000 units his first album bowed with. It's also one of the best opening weeks so far during this admittedly weak sales year. Less thrilling was Snoop Dogg's Ego Trippin', which debuted at No. 3; that appears to be an enviable chart position, until you realize that the 137,000-copy opening tally represents the lowest first week any of his studio albums has ever had, according to Billboard. (His last album, Tha Blue Carpet Treatment, opened with 264,000.) The third entry in this week's hip-hop trifecta, Fat Joe's The Elephant in the Room, saw a less-than-elephantine bow with a modest 46,000 units, which was still good enough to grab No. 6.
Some other albums making their first appearance on the sales chart: the NOW 27 collection, which debuted at No. 2 with 169,000, as well the NOW franchise's incursion into the nostalgia market, Now That's What I Call 80's, which bowed at No. 11 with 34,000. A live Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus album, the soundtrack to the recent 3D Best of Both Worlds movie, popped in at No. 10 with 34,000. That sounds like a fairly low number for the tween-appeal phenomenon, but for now, the Montana album is a WalMart exclusive; it won't become available through other retailers until April 15.
One dawg that fell well short of the top 10 was Randy Jackson's Music Club Volume One, a collection produced by the American Idol judge: Despite the buzz — both positive and negative — surrounding the album's first single, "Dance Like There's No Tomorrow," sung by fellow judge Paula Abdul, the disc only made it to No. 50, on sales of 13,000.
Likely leading the way on next week's chart: albums that hit the streets Tuesday by Danity Kane, Flo Rida, and Yael Naim, as well as Gnarls Barkley's so far digital-only sophomore effort.
Alan Jackson's Good Time got off to a good start on the album chart, selling 119,000 to debut at No. 1. This is the fourth time an album of Jackson's topped the overall Billboard/Soundscan sales rankings, and the first time since 2002. (His last album, Like Red on a Rose, opened with a higher sales tally, but only made it to No. 4, due to tougher competition at the time.) We're sure the country star didn't mean to reference the Jimmie Walker era with that Good Time(s) title, but we'd love to hear Jackson let loose with a cry of "Dy-no-mite!" (Not gonna happen.)
How about a "Hallelujah," then? The late Jeff Buckley's "Hallelujah" enters the digital songs chart at a shocking No. 1, selling 178,000 downloads for the week, just ahead of the 175,000 that Usher's "Love in This Club" sold. We'd love to think this resurrection happened because the song's writer, Leonard Cohen, was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this week. Alas, no. It's because American Idol heartthrob Jason Castro did a rendition of it on the juggernaut show.
Not to be outdone, Michael McDonald covered "Hallelujah" on his new long-player, which debuted on the album sales chart at No. 12 with 28,000 copies. Other notable debuts included L.A.-based Celtic-punk band Flogging Molly, in at No. 4 with 48,000 (their previous chart peak was No. 20), and the Black Crowes, bowing at No. 5 with 46,000 (their first trip to the top 10 since 1992). Among top holdovers, Jack Johnson moved back up from No. 3 to No. 2, while, in her second week out, Janet Jackson dropped from No. 1 to No. 3 with a 68% sales decrease. Now, if only she had named her album Good Time(s).
Even with the Eagles' history-making No. 1 debut last week still fresh in industry minds, there are those who believe that charts themselves are becoming insignificant. "You're going to see a lot more people not playing the chart game," says one EMI executive. "It used to be about shipping enough so that you get your position, your numbers look good for that quarter, and then dealing with the returns later. Today, the scenarios have changed. It's more about reacting to the consumer than to what's on the charts."
Case in point: Capitol Records Group has shipped 600,000 copies (all of which were bought outright, as in no returns) of the Spice Girls' Greatest Hits to Victoria's Secret for Tuesday's release of the album. VS has more than 1,000 locations in malls throughout the U.S., but it's not a SoundScan-enabled retailer, so the Spice Girls' first-week sales won't be counted. Not that EMI minds. The record has already sold more than gold, and that's before digital sales (also starting this week) or even the album's wide physical release on Jan. 15. Still, under this system, there's no way to track whether the album actually moves or ends up in a landfill.
This may be the future of music sales, but don't big-name artists still covet that slot on the Billboard Top 10? Especially a group like the Spice Girls, who haven't released any material in seven years? "Actually, it gives more leeway for long-term plans and strategies," says the exec. "By the time the physical CD is out, they'll still be touring the U.S., and through the shopping season, the album will be everywhere." Besides, he adds, "there's a Victoria's Secret in every mall, and how many malls don't even have a record store?" Point taken.
Jay-Z has never had a new album not hit No. 1, and American Gangster didn’t put any stop to that streak. With 422,000 sold in its first week, the non-soundtrack movie tie-in CD became Jay's 10th disc to top the Billboard 200, tying him with Elvis at second place for greatest number of charttoppers. But Hov’s going to have to come out of retirement a few more times to catch up with the record-holder, the Beatles, who had 19 No. 1 albums. If you’re wondering how this number rates against other Jay-Z debuts, his last one, 2006's Kingdom Come, debuted with a heftier 688,000. Tongue-waggers will no doubt be wondering how much bigger a bow Gangster might have had if Jay hadn’t had it yanked from iTunes, claiming that he wanted music fans to only be able to buy the whole project, not individual songs.
The other big chart news this week: Country. Loads and loads of country. It was the week of the highly rated CMA Awards, and of this week’s top 20 sellers, no fewer
than eight performed on the CMAs: the Eagles,
Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift, Reba McEntire, Sugarland, Alison
Krauss, Rascal Flatts, and Josh Turner. And the chart has a ninth
country act, Garth Brooks, who, as previously noted in Hollywood Insider, missed the chance to perform at the show. Now you could argue about whether the Eagles or Krauss/Robert Plant
projects really count as country genre albums, but the fact remains that 45 percent of this week’s general top 20
overlaps with the country album sales chart.
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